Trend Report: 2nd Wave Weed Weddings
Romantic ideas, challenges, & opportunities.
Sunday, August 4, 2024
Contains 2,124 words. Time to read: About 9 minutes.
Weed weddings are a well-established phenomenon. You might say they went mainstream after that New York Times feature in 2022—that they’re old news now. However, similar to the turnover happening in every maturing adult-use market, the scene is very different than it was just a few years ago. As in, a lot of it’s no longer around.
It looks like the Cannabis Wedding Expo went dark. Many of the companies hosting joint-rolling bars and assembling cannabis boutonnieres are gone. Irie Weddings & Events is still kicking, and you can still get married in a Las Vegas grow house, but there are way fewer dedicated resources than there are couples interested in weed at their weddings. The enthusiasm is there; the creative visions are there, but many couples are on their own navigating the same obstacles regarding venue, vendors, and nonjudgmental ambiance.
Today’s newsletter focuses on the experiences of two recent brides with grand weed wedding dreams and how they problem-solved their way to realizing the closest version possible. I also spoke to one dispensary investing in this space, gathering all the different ways these brides and others have worked weed into their nuptials for a fun inspo list at the end.
Let’s head down the aisle.
One Store Leans In
My mind wandered to the state of the weed wedding scene after seeing a post from Gotham dispensary back in March inviting New York couples with wedding plans and an interest in cannabis catering to get in touch. I reached out to the team to learn what inspired that call and how wedding season has gone so far. It turns out weddings have been on their minds since the shop opened.
“The first month we were open, a couple tagged us in their wedding photos on Instagram,” says Rachel Bell, Director of Content at Gotham Dispensary (and star of the delightfully effective High, I’m High Instagram series). “The bride was holding a pre-roll they’d purchased at Gotham to celebrate their special day.”
Seeing these kinds of tags and thinking about the growing trend of swapping alcohol for cannabis in celebratory settings, Gotham was interested in being the first shop to come to engaged couples’ minds when planning their pot-friendly NY nuptials. The goal of that post was to validate their hunch (it did) and find the perfect couple that would serve as a proof of concept and a springboard to launch an entire wedding business within Gotham. Couples from all demographics reached out, but Gotham sought a “quintessentially New York couple getting married in a quintessentially New York location who wanted us to be a huge part of their festivities.”
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